Psychological Correlates of Handedness and Corpus Callosum Asymmetry in Autism: the Left Hemisphere Dysfunction Theory Revisited

Overview

Journal J Autism Dev Disord

Publisher Springer

Date 2012 Nov 27

PMID 23179344

Citations 22

Authors

Dorothea L Floris

Lindsay R Chura

Rosemary J Holt

John Suckling

Edward T Bullmore

Simon Baron-Cohen

Michael D Spencer

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Rightward cerebral lateralization has been suggested to be involved in the neuropathology of autism spectrum conditions. We investigated functional and neuroanatomical asymmetry, in terms of handedness and corpus callosum measurements in male adolescents with autism, their unaffected siblings and controls, and their associations with executive dysfunction and symptom severity. Adolescents with autism did not differ from controls in functional asymmetry, but neuroanatomically showed the expected pattern of stronger rightward lateralization in the posterior and anterior midbody based on their hand-preference. Measures of symptom severity were related to rightward asymmetry in three subregions (splenium, posterior midbody and rostral body). We found the opposite pattern for the isthmus and rostrum with better cognitive and less severe clinical scores associated with rightward lateralization.

Citing Articles

Handedness in autism spectrum disorders and intellectually disabled children and adolescents - Contrasting caregivers' reports with assessments of hand preference.

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Diverging asymmetry of intrinsic functional organization in autism.

Wan B, Hong S, Bethlehem R, Floris D, Bernhardt B, Valk S Mol Psychiatry. 2023; 28(10):4331-4341.

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Towards robust and replicable sex differences in the intrinsic brain function of autism.

Floris D, Filho J, Lai M, Giavasis S, Oldehinkel M, Mennes M Mol Autism. 2021; 12(1):19.

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White matter endophenotypes and correlates for the clinical diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder.

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Sex chromosome trisomies are not associated with atypical lateralization for language.

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